Quietude Quotes

The resting place of the mind is the heart. The only thing the mind hears all day is clanging bells and noise and argument, and all it wants is quietude. The only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart. That's where you need to go. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

Attachment begins early but grows slowly. There are no shortcuts. Verbal guarantees of safety or nurturance carry no more weight than those for hair-replacement systems and miracle slicers. A therapist must prove trustworthy over time. Only consistent experiential demonstrations, in times of both quietude and turbulence, convince the child. Though all children love to be wined and dined, the safety, understanding, warmth, and containment of therapy are what foster trust and ultimately seduce the child patient. (41) ~ Richard Bromfield

If an animal is designed by nature to have claws it ought to keep them, and if men come with quirks that they are incapable of changing, well, a certain amount of quietude and even peace can be achieved by just realizing that it's all inherent in the beast. [p. 173] ~ Carolyn G. Heilbrun

I desire to establish a profound state of peacefulness, an imperturbable stillness of mind, an unconditioned mode of being that is free from mind contaminants of negative thoughts. I pray to undertake a productive emotional, intellectual, and spiritual journey seeking the highest level of personal realization that defines wholeness and finality. In stillness, a state of mental quietude, we enter the worldly womb of creativity. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

If our life were an eternal standing by the window, if we could remain there forever, like hovering smoke, with the same moment of twilight forever painting the curve of the hills… If we could remain that way for beyond for ever! If at least on this side of the impossible we could thus continue, without committing an action, without our pallid lips sinning another word!

Look how it's getting dark!… The positive quietude of everything fills me with rage, with something that's a bitterness in the air I breathe. My soul aches… A slow wisp of smoke rises and dissipates in the distance… A restless tedium makes me think no more of you…

All so superfluous! We and the world and the mystery of both. ~ Fernando Pessoa

I never understood the need for a "live" audience. My music, because of its extreme quietude, would be happiest with a dead one. ~ Igor Stravinsky

W.S Merwin says "after three days of rain" and I write "After Twelve Days of Rain." I like his quietude. I admire his ability to be simple without being simplistic. ~ Dorianne Laux

All the answers i seek lie within me, but inner quietude is mandatory before those become loud and clear. ~ Pooja Ruprell

You wonder why you can't see me,
Sense me, feel me…?
When you are outpouring your emotion,
it is like me trying to climb up a waterfall
To get to you.
But if you are calm and have faith in me,
I can sail right over to you
On the still waters of your soul. ~ Kate McGahan

Children, pray for the good of everyone. We should pray to God to give a good mind even to those who harm us. One cannot sleep peacefully when there is a theif in the neighborhood. Likewise, when we pray for the well-being of others, it is we who gain peace and quietude. Children, the mantra 'Loka samasta sukhino bhavantu' should be chanted at least once daily. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi

When you're young you think that you're going to sail into a lovely lake of quietude and peace. This is profoundly untrue. ~ Doris Lessing

Quietude is the hermit's humble tool. An intrepid person might attempt to wring out of him or herself a translucent state of creative consciousness by deliberately cutting oneself off from all outside stimuli. When the exterior world forms a wall of impenetrable silence, in our state of exile we can hear the unique cadence of the subtle mind's authentic ringtone. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

The sublime state of peace of mind, despite our woundedness, emits a sense of comfort and gentleness to others, an inner charm that calms an anxious soul amid our benevolent presence, like a wild deer that drinks water from the serenity of the forest, and then leaves as quietly as it arrives fully quenched from its thirst. ( - Danny Castillones Sillada, The Quietude of the Soul) ~ Danny Castillones Sillada

When you enter your secret chamber, take plenty of time before you begin to speak. Let quietude wield its influence upon you. Let the fact that you are alone assert itself. Give your soul time to get released from the many outward things. Give God time to play the prelude to prayer for the benefit of your distracted soul. ~ Ole Hallesby

By being understanding one can receive serenity and peace... Time serenading soul, graced to the depth, breadth and height infinitely sculpting the spirit whole. Traveling the lands, and sailing the oceans, guarded by lost Saints whispering the calm in storms...praising the beauty of the memory footprints...walking into the sunrise gardens full of fragrance of the future where living waters flow crystalline with hold of soothing love....making merely soft sunset dreams possible seem innocent and sweet....painting the rosy blush one's cheeks upon, restful smile and immense goodness sense within...finding mind's quietude and a mythical yet real home... ~ Oksana Rus

I love the quietude of misty dawn before the sober sun is up... The morning songs of birds awakening in blooming garden sets my soul gently... Aroma flowers with glistering of the dew... Deep full chest breath... Shy sunbeams flickering over the tops of wisdom whispering choir of waving trees... Serenity of mind... The crystal still lagoon reflecting soft lavender sailing clouds...I step in breeze realm, close eyes and fly with them over the miles, time and space... The serenading music fills my heart... Above the skies the joy of the refreshing winds, as our summer, recalls my being by your side and makes me feel the touch of you and gladness of your tranquil vibes. I smile... ~ Oksana Rus

Without quietude you cannot enjoy the cool vibrations of the Divine. ~ Nirmala Srivastava

The ashram is Mother's body. Mother's soul is in Her children. Children, all the service done for the ashram, is done for Mother. The ashram is not anyone's private property. It is the means to provide peace and quietude for the entire world. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi

Ask the world to reveal its quietude- not the silence of machines when they are still, but the true quiet by which birdsongs, trees, bellworts, snails, clouds, storms become what they are, and are nothing else. ~ Wendell Berry

Today, find a point of stillness: brief, but precious slight, but full small, but luminously real. Find a point stillness in the balance of all things between the breathing out and breathing in. ~ Na'ama Yehuda

There is a third choice besides being busy and killing time, something profound. ~ James Rozoff

All sense of hearing and of sight enfold in the serene delight and quietude of sleep. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The more a person knows the less they talk. I shall cease speaking and endeavor to instill a large band of silence inside myself in order to forge a deeper and closer relationship with all of nature. Only when I attain absolute quietude shall I understand the supreme virtue of humanity and understand the meaning of both life and death. Only when I achieve absolute stillness shall I come to a perfect realization of the meaning of existence innate in all things. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

O, the sorrow of us all,
to wander the earth in a shell.
And looking to the heavens,
we lay to rest in hell.
The suffering of the innocent
in the midst of Jacob's well.
How the miles fled between us,
and that distance is still great.
Though on the same shore we now sit,
in temporal quietude to wait.
The moon is our bright witness;
it will lead us to the gate. ~ Craig Froman

His retreat into himself is not a final renunciation of the world, but a search for quietude, where alone it is possible for him to make his contribution to the life of the community. ~ C. G. Jung

Stupidity and Madness

The Tao is clear, yet this clarity requires you to sweep away all your clutter. At all times watch out for your own stupidity, be careful of how your mind jumps around. When nothing occurs to involve your mind, you return to true awareness. When unified mindfulness is purely real, you comprehend the great restoration. The ridiculous ones are those who try to cultivate quietude - as long as body and mind are unstable, it is madness to go into the mountains. ~ Liu Yiming

I have been ineluctably drawn to libraries ever since I entered that sanctum sanctorum. It was a place of quietude. In a world where things go beep and ding and ring, where you've got mail and you've got messages, when I enter a library, I feel that I am still entering a temple. ~ Carmen Agra Deedy

oxygen

Everything needs it: bone, muscles, and even,
while it calls the earth its home, the soul.
So the merciful, noisy machine

stands in our house working away in its
lung-like voice. I hear it as I kneel
before the fire, stirring with a

stick of iron, letting the logs
lie more loosely. You, in the upstairs room,
are in your usual position, leaning on your

right shoulder which aches
all day. You are breathing
patiently; it is a

beautiful sound. It is
your life, which is so close
to my own that I would not know

where to drop the knife of
separation. And what does this have to do
with love, except

everything? Now the fire rises
and offers a dozen, singing, deep-red
roses of flame. Then it settles

to quietude, or maybe gratitude, as it feeds
as we all do, as we must, upon the invisible gift:
our purest, sweet necessity: the air. ~ Mary Oliver

Many believe that they need company at any cost, and certainly if a thing is desired at any cost, it will be obtained at all costs. We need to remember and to teach our children that solitude can be a much-to-be-desired condition. Not only is it acceptable to be alone, at times it is positively to be wished for. It is in the interludes between being in company that we talk to ourselves. In the silence we listen to ourselves. Then we ask questions of ourselves. We describe ourselves, and in the quietude we may even hear the voice of God ~ Maya Angelou

Where there are more restrictions and prohibitions, there is also more poverty. Where there are many sharp weapons, there is also more chaos. Where the people are full of clever schemes, there are also strange outcomes. Where there are many laws and edicts, there is also an abundance of criminals. Therefore, the wise person: Practices non-action so that the people are naturally transformed. Welcomes quietude so that the people will naturally be civilized. Does not interfere so that the people will naturally be prosperous. ~ Lao-Tzu

Is a little remarkable, that - though disinclined to talk overmuch of myself and my affairs at the fireside, and to my personal friends - an autobiographical impulse should twice in my life have taken possession of me, in addressing the public. The first time was three or four years since, when I favoured the reader - inexcusably, and for no earthly reason that either the indulgent reader or the intrusive author could imagine - with a description of my way of life in the deep quietude ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Not only a truer knowledge, but a greater power comes to one in the quietude and silence of a mind that, instead of bubbling on the surface, can go to its own depths and listen. ~ Sri Aurobindo

Withdraw to the untroubled quietude deep within the soul, and refresh yourself. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Allow the heart to empty itself of all turmoil! Retrieve the utter tranquility of the mind from which you issued.
Although all forms are dynamic,and we all grow and transform,each of us is compelled to return to our root. Our root is quietude. ~ Lao-Tzu

I fear that moments of quietude are on the endangered list; right behind solitude. ~ Nanette L. Avery

Quietude

As music is not in the notes, but in the silence between the notes, the real joy of life is not in the activities, but in the quiet between the activities. ~ Amar Ochani

I do not mind someone talking to me, as long as they do not mind me not listening or talking to them. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

He hoped these students would learn how to be at home in the desert, not how to conquer it; and he hoped that, in the process, they might discover the spiritual value of quietude. ~ David Quammen

[T]he light of oneness is available to all of us, present in hidden aquifers where life's waters continue to flow, waiting in a living silence for us to notice. ~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

The places of quiet are going away, the churches, the woods, the libraries. And it is only in silence we can hear the voice inside of us which gives us true peace. ~ James Rozoff

Her quietude was not weakness; it was an ardent watchfulness that would be replaced by a roar when required. ~ Marie Benedict

In contrast to the knowledge that keeps man in a passive quietude, Desire dis-quiets him and moves him to action. Born of Desire, action tends to satisfy it, and can do so only by the 'negation,' the destruction or at least the transformation, of the desired object: to satisfy hunger, for example, the food must be destroyed or, in any case, transformed. Thus all action is 'negating'. ~ Alexandre Kojeve

The peace of Manderley. The quietude and the grace. Whoever lived within its walls, whatever trouble there was and strife, however much uneasiness and pain, no matter what tears were shed, what sorrows borne, the peace of Manderley could not be broken or the loveliness destroyed. ~ Daphne Du Maurier

Quietude, which some men cannot abide because it reveals their inward poverty, is as a palace of cedar to the wise, for along its hallowed courts the King in his beauty deigns to walk. ~ Charles Spurgeon

For any sustained and more or less original work it seems most necessary that one should have the quietude and strength of Nature at hand, like a great reservoir from which to draw. The open air, and the physical and mental health that goes with it, the sense of space and freedom of the Sky, the vitality and amplitude of the Earth -- these are real things from which one can only cut oneself off at serious peril and risk to one's immortal soul. ~ Edward Carpenter

There is a quiet subtlety about keeping some things personal and not everyone will understand, and that is fine - but it is important to have a bit of yourself that just stays inside…. ~ Debbie Lynn - 360 Degrees Full Circle

As he walked, the sad faded leaves were driven pitilessly around him by the wind, and under the mingling influences of autumn and evening, a craving for the quietude of the grave ... overtook him with unwanted intensity. ~ Georges Rodenbach

I went up on the hill and walked about until twilight had deepened into an autumn night with a benediction of starry quietude over it. I was alone but not lonely. I was a queen in halls of fancy. ~ L.M. Montgomery

Calm in quietude is not real calm. When you can be calm in the midst of activity, this is the true state of nature. Happiness in comfort is not real happiness. When you can be happy in the midst of hardship, then you see the true potential of the mind. ~ Huanchu Daoren

Some say that sudden knowledge of mystical matters is accomplished only in complete quietude, or that Creator, in one of God's many forms, appears only in orderly ways that are beauteous and picturesque, or that the mystical appears only in completely silent ways. All are true. Except for the 'only' part. ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I'd rather have a life of chaos beside you than a life of quietude and stability without you... ~ Catia M Rodrigues

Even the great scientists have reported that their creative break-throughs came at a time of mental quietude. The surprising result of a nationwide inquiry among America's most eminent mathematicians, including Einstein, to find out their working methods, was that thinking 'plays only a subordinate part in the brief, decisive phase of the creative act itself'. ~ Eckhart Tolle

If looks were to be believed, he still was just a boy. Something of my age, though from his solemn quietude, I knew he was old in the soul. A boy whose black crayon would be the shortest in his box. ~ Tiffany McDaniel